• Advances in concrete construction
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• v.1 no.3
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• pp.239-252
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• 2013

Mortar microstructure is considered as a three-phase composite material, which is cement paste, fine aggregate and interfacial transition zone. Interfacial transition zone is the weakest link between the cement paste and fine aggregate, so it has a significant role to determine the properties of cementitious composites. In this study, specimens (w/c = 0.35, 0.45, 0.55) with various volume fractions of fine aggregate ($V_f$ = 0, 0.1, 0.2, 0.3 and 0.4) were cast and tested. To predict the equivalent migration coefficient ($M_e$) and migration coefficient of interfacial transition zone ($M_{itz}$), double-inclusion method and Mori-Tanaka theory were used to estimate. There are two stages to estimate and calculate the thickness of interfacial transition zone (h) and migration coefficient of interfacial transition zone ($M_{itz}$). The first stage, the data of experimental chloride ion migration coefficient ($M_s$) was used to calculate the equivalent migration coefficient of fine aggregate with interfacial transition zone ($M_e$) by Mori-Tanaka theory. The second stage, the thickness of interfacial transition zone (h) and migration coefficient of interfacial transition zone ($M_{itz}$) was calculated by Hori and Nemat-Nasser's double inclusion model. Between the theoretical and experimental data a comparison was conducted to investigate the behavior of interfacial transition zone in mortar and the effect of interfacial transition zone on the chloride migration coefficient, the results indicated that the numerical simulations is derived to the $M_{itz}/M_m$ ratio is 2.11~8.28. Additionally, thickness of interfacial transition zone is predicted from $10{\mu}m$, 60 to $80{\mu}m$, 70 to $100{\mu}m$ and 90 to $130{\mu}m$ for SM30, M35, M45 and M55, respectively.

• Steel and Composite Structures
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• v.30 no.2
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• pp.81-96
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• 2019

The behavior of a new Three-Tube Buckling-Restrained Brace (TTBRB) with circumference pre-stress (${\sigma}_{{\theta},pre}$) in core tube are investigated through a verified finite element model. The TTBRB is composed of one core tube and two restraining tubes. The core tube is in the middle to provide the axial stiffness, to carry the axial load and to dissipate the earthquake energy. The two restraining tubes are at inside and outside of the core tube, respectively, to restrain the global and local buckling of the core tube. Based on the yield criteria of fringe fiber, a design method for restraining tubes is proposed. The applicability of the proposed design equations are verified by TTBRBs with different radius-thickness ratios, with different gap widths between core tube and restraining tubs, and with different levels of ${\sigma}_{{\theta},pre}$. The outer and inner tubes will restrain the deformation of the core tube in radius direction, which causes circumference stress (${\sigma}_{\theta}$) in the core tube. Together with the ${\sigma}_{{\theta},pre}$ in the core tube that is applied through interference fit of the three tubes, the yield strength of the core tube in the axial direction is improved from 160 MPa to 235 MPa. Effects of gap width between the core tube and restraining tubes, and ${\sigma}_{{\theta},pre}$ on hysteretic behavior of TTBRBs are presented. Analysis results showed that the gap width and the ${\sigma}_{{\theta},pre}$ can significantly affect the hysteretic behavior of a TTBRB.

• Structural Engineering and Mechanics
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• v.81 no.3
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• pp.349-365
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• 2022

Steel fibre-reinforced concrete (SFRC) is an emerging class of composite for construction. However, a reliable method to assess the flexural behaviour of SFRC structural member is in lack. An analytical technique is proposed for determining the moment-curvature response of concrete beams reinforced with steel fibres and longitudinal bars (R/SFRC members). The behaviour of the tensile zone of such members is highly complex due to the interaction between the residual (tension softening) stresses of SFRC and the tension stiffening stresses. The current study suggests a transparent and mechanically sound method to combine these two stress concepts. Tension stiffening is modelled by the reinforcement-related approach assuming that the corresponding stresses act in the area of tensile reinforcement. The effect is quantified based on the analogy between the R/SFRC member and the equivalent RC member having identical geometry and materials except fibres. It is assumed that the resultant tension stiffening force for the R/SFRC member can be calculated as for the equivalent RC member providing that the reinforcement strain in the cracked section of these members is the same. The resultant tension stiffening force can be defined from the moment-curvature relation of the equivalent RC member using an inverse technique. The residual stress is calculated using an existing model that eliminates the need for dedicated mechanical testing. The proposed analytical technique was validated against test data of R/SFRC beams and slabs.

• Steel and Composite Structures
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• v.46 no.3
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• pp.385-401
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• 2023

Steel is becoming increasingly popular due to its high strength, excellent ductility, great assembly performance, and recyclability. In reality, steel structures serving for a long time in atmospheric, industrial, and marine environments inevitably suffer from corrosion, which significantly decreases the durability and the service life with the exposure time. For the mechanical properties of corroded steel, experimental studies are mainly conducted. The existing numerical analyses only evaluate the mechanical properties based on corroded morphology at the isolated time-in-point, ignoring that this morphology varies continuously with corrosion time. To solve this problem, the relationships between pit depth expectation, standard deviation, and corrosion time are initially constructed based on a large amount of wet-dry cyclic accelerated test data. Successively, based on that, an in-situ pitting evolution method for evaluating the residual tensile strength of corroded steel is proposed. To verify the method, 20 repeated simulations of mass loss rates and mechanical properties are adopted against the test results. Then, numerical analyses are conducted on 135 models of corrosion pits with different aspect ratios and uneven corrosion degree on two corroded surfaces. Results show that the power function with exponents of 1.483 and 1.091 can well describe the increase in pit depth expectation and standard deviation with corrosion time, respectively. The effect of the commonly used pit aspect ratios of 0.10-0.25 on yield strength and ultimate strength is negligible. Besides, pit number ratio α equating to 0.6 is the critical value for the strength degradation. When α is less than 0.6, the pit number increases with α, accelerating the degradation of strength. Otherwise, the strength degradation is weakened. In addition, a power function model is adopted to characterize the degradation of yield strength and ultimate strength with corrosion time, which is revised by initial steel plate thickness.

• Steel and Composite Structures
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• v.46 no.3
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• pp.319-334
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• 2023

Localizing damages is an essential task to monitor the health of the structures since they may not be able to operate anymore. Among the damage detection techniques, non-destructive methods are considerably more preferred than destructive methods since damage can be located without affecting the structural integrity. However, these methods have several drawbacks in terms of detecting abilities, time consumption, cost, and hardware or software requirements. Employing artificial intelligence techniques could overcome such issues and could provide a powerful damage detection model if the technique is utilized correctly. In this study, the crack localization in flat and folded plate structures has been conducted by employing a Backpropagated Artificial Neural Network (BPANN). For this purpose, cracks with 18 different dimensions in thin, flat, and folded structures having 15⁰, 30⁰, 45⁰, and 60⁰ folding angle have been modeled and subjected to free vibration analysis by employing the Classical Plate Theory with Finite Element Method. A Four-nodded quadrilateral element having six degrees of freedom has been considered to represent those structures mathematically. The first ten natural frequencies have been obtained regarding healthy and cracked structures. To localize the crack, the ratios of the frequencies of the cracked flat and folded structures to those of healthy ones have been taken into account. Those ratios have been given to BPANN as the input variables, while the crack locations have been considered as the output variables. A total of 500 crack locations have been regarded within the dataset obtained from the results of the free vibration analysis. To build the best intelligent model, a feature search has been conducted for BAPNN regarding activation function, the number of hidden layers, and the number of hidden neurons. Regarding the analysis results, it is concluded that the BPANN is able to localize the cracks with an average accuracy of 95.12%.

• Advances in nano research
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• v.15 no.5
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• pp.467-484
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• 2023

Despite the significant features of fiber-reinforced cementitious composites (FRCCs), including better mechanical, fractural, and durability performance, their high content of cement has restricted their use in the construction industry. Although ground granulated blast furnace slag (GGBFS) is considered the main supplementary cementitious material, its slow pozzolanic reaction stands against its application. The addition of nano-sized mineral modifiers, including nano-silica (NS), is an alternative to address the drawbacks of using GGBFS. The main object of this empirical and numerical research is to examine the effect of NS on the strain-hardening behavior of cementitious composites; ten mixes were designed, and five levels of NS were considered. This study proposes a new method, using a four-point bending test to assess the use of nano-silica (NS) on the flexural behavior, first cracking strength, fracture energy, and micromechanical parameters including interfacial friction bond strength and maximum bridging stress. Digital image correlation (DIC) was used for monitoring the initiation and propagation of the cracks. In addition, to attain a deep comprehension of fiber/matrix interaction, scanning electron microscope (SEM) analysis was used. It was discovered that using nano-silica (NS) in cementitious materials results in an enhancement in the matrix toughness, which prevents multiple cracking and, therefore, strain-hardening. In addition, adding NS enhanced the interfacial transition zone between matrix and fiber, leading to a higher interfacial friction bond strength, which helps multiple cracking in the composite due to the hydrophobic nature of polypropylene (PP) fibers. The findings of this research provide insight into finding the optimum percent of NS in which both ductility and high tensile strength of the composites would be satisfied. As a concluding remark, a new criterion is proposed, showing that the optimum value of nano-silica is 2%. The findings and proposed method of this study can facilitate the design and utilization of green cementitious composites in structures.

• Composites Research
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• v.37 no.3
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• pp.226-231
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• 2024

Coal ash has been used as a sand replacement in the construction industry. Due to the use of bituminous coal as a result of anthracite depletion, and quicklime as an air purifier in the desulfurization process, pop-out defects have recently occurred in concrete using coal ash, severely limiting the recycling of coal ash into concrete. In this study, the components that cause the pop-out problem of the coal ash filled concrete were identified and a pretreatment method to fully expand the expansive components in advance was proposed as a solution to this problem. By treating water twice for 10 min, allowing the CaO mixed in the coal ash to fully expand, the problems of pop-out and reduced compressive strength of the concrete were overcome. The cost and time efficient water treatment method proposed in this study is expected to promote the recycling of coal ash into concrete.

• Steel and Composite Structures
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• v.51 no.2
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• pp.117-126
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• 2024

There are many challenges in the construction of large-section tunnels, such as extremely soft rock and fractured zones. In order to solve these problems, the confined concrete support technology is proposed to control the surrounding rocks. The large-scale laboratory test is carried out to clarify mechanical behaviours of the combined confined concrete and traditional I-steel arches. The test results show that the bearing capacity of combined confined concrete arch is 3217.5 kN, which is 3.12 times that of the combined I-steel arch. The optimum design method is proposed to select reasonable design parameters for confined concrete arch. The parametric finite element (FE) analysis is carried out to study the effect of the design factors via optimum design method. The steel pipe wall thickness and the longitudinal connection ring spacing have a significant effect on the bearing capacity of the combined confined concrete arch. Based on the above research, the confined concrete support technology is applied on site. The field monitoring results shows that the arch has an excellent control effect on the surrounding rock deformation. The results of this research provide a reference for the support design of surrounding rocks in large-section tunnels.

• Journal of Korean Tunnelling and Underground Space Association
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• v.26 no.4
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• pp.315-326
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• 2024

In this study, the Delphi method and AHP (analytic hierarchy process) were used to evaluate tunnel collapse risk from a comprehensive and multifaceted perspective. Influence factors were established through literature reviews, previous studies, and brainstorming sessions with expert groups, resulting in the construction of five main classification systems. A panel of 21 experts was formed, and three rounds of Delphi surveys were conducted to prevent errors and biases in the expert judgment process, thereby enhancing reliability. Ultimately, 14 influence factors were identified through CVR (content validity ratio) and COV (coefficient of variation) analyses of the experts' responses. Subsequently, the AHP method was applied to assess the relative importance of each influence factor and calculate the final composite weights. The timing of support and reinforcement had the highest priority, followed by groundwater inflow, joint conditions, support pattern levels, and auxiliary methods. These findings help identify the key factors affecting tunnel collapse risk and provide a foundation for developing strategies to improve tunnel safety.

• Steel and Composite Structures
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• v.52 no.2
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• pp.145-163
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• 2024

This paper presents six novel hybrid machine learning (ML) models that combine support vector machines (SVM), Decision Tree (DT), Random Forest (RF), Gradient Boosting (GB), extreme gradient boosting (XGB), and categorical gradient boosting (CGB) with the Harris Hawks Optimization (HHO) algorithm. These models, namely HHO-SVM, HHO-DT, HHO-RF, HHO-GB, HHO-XGB, and HHO-CGB, are designed to predict the ultimate strength of both rectangular and circular reinforced concrete (RC) columns. The prediction models are established using a comprehensive database consisting of 325 experimental data for rectangular columns and 172 experimental data for circular columns. The ML model hyperparameters are optimized through a combination of cross-validation technique and the HHO. The performance of the hybrid ML models is evaluated and compared using various metrics, ultimately identifying the HHO-CGB model as the top-performing model for predicting the ultimate shear strength of both rectangular and circular RC columns. The mean R-value and mean a20-index are relatively high, reaching 0.991 and 0.959, respectively, while the mean absolute error and root mean square error are low (10.302 kN and 27.954 kN, respectively). Another comparison is conducted with four existing formulas to further validate the efficiency of the proposed HHO-CGB model. The Shapely Additive Explanations method is applied to analyze the contribution of each variable to the output within the HHO-CGB model, providing insights into the local and global influence of variables. The analysis reveals that the depth of the column, length of the column, and axial loading exert the most significant influence on the ultimate shear strength of RC columns. A user-friendly graphical interface tool is then developed based on the HHO-CGB to facilitate practical and cost-effective usage.